1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a V-type diesel engine equipped with a common rail for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The assignee filed a patent application regarding a V-type diesel engine with a common rail on Feb. 13, 1998 in Japan and this application was published on Aug. 24, 1999 with Laid-Open Publication No. 11-229991, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This diesel engine has a supply pump (high pressure pump) and common rail located in series at a bottom of a V-shaped valley between two banks of the engine so that the supply pump and common rail are linearly arranged in a longitudinal direction of the engine. Arranging the supply pump and common rail in this manner does not elongate the length of the engine so that the engine can be designed compact as long as the length of the supply pump and that of the common rail are within a certain value.
However, if the length of the supply pump and/or common rail becomes longer, the total length of the supply pump and common rail may exceed the length of the engine. As a result, the object of JP 11-229991, i.e., making the engine compact, is not attained.
Further, an engine designer might think that a turbo charger, EGR cooler and/or other devices should also be located in the interbank valley of the engine. In such a case, the supply pump and/or common rail may become an obstacle if the arrangement of JP ""991 is employed.
One of the objects of the present invention is to eliminate the above described problem.
According to one aspect of the present invention, two intake manifolds are attached to two banks of the engine, and a common rail spans these intake manifolds. The location of the common rail is shifted upwards so that a supply pump and the common rail can extend in an overlapping manner. The supply pump extends at a bottom of the interbank valley of the two banks of the engine. Thus, even if a long supply pump and/or common rail is employed, the total length of the engine is not be elongated. In addition, space is created below the common rail so that other devices can be placed below the common rail.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the subsequent description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.